Our History
Over 50 years of family-run, experience in Roofing Services all under one roof!
1978
Ashbrook Roofing was born 45 years ago. David Ashbrook the founder, had been building houses in Derbyshire for the past decade. David decided to turn his back on housebuilding, and put all his talent and energy into roofing, to which he was a newbie.
David Ashbrook created Ashbrook Roofing and started working on roofs in Derbyshire with his nephew Peter, and Darin (who is still with us today).
Operating first from the back of his trusty van and kitchen table, before moving to a small self-built depot in Rowsley.
1980
Now needing somewhere to store materials, David rents a unit from Derbyshire Dales District Council (Station Yard, Rowsley) in the old Express Dairy milk depot. This would be Ashbrook Roofing’s first home, having a proper yard to operate from.
1986
Clare Ashbrook (David’s wife) joined Ashbrook Roofing. Recognising a gap in the marketplace, Clare started to sell new and reclaimed, well-priced roofing materials to trade and private clients in the local area.
1987
Station Yard, the home of Ashbrook Roofing suffered a huge fire, David and Clare lost everything, including equipment, tools, materials, vehicles and all their paperwork. Many local businesses offered support in this difficult time to help them get back on their feet. The council rebuilt the building that had been destroyed. However, David and Clare had enough personal savings to buy a second-hand pickup to carry on working.
1988
David and Clare decided to purchase the unit at Station Yard, from Derbyshire Dales District Council. This also included the plot of land around the unit – this became Ashbrook Roofing’s first official, owned yard.
1989
Ashbrook Roofing becomes a member of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors Limited (NFRC). Over a couple of years David and Clare extended the building within their yard and built another 4 industrial units behind their building for commercial letting and storage.
1990
Ashbrook Roofing’s first trade counter was opened at Station Yard, which started to sell new and reclaimed roofing materials including small quantities of slates, tiles, and fixings.
David, Peter, and Darin worked alongside a handful of roofers totalling around another 3 team members.
1991
Clare Ashbrook creates the Ashbrook Roofing logo as we know it today, doodling whilst on hold to a supplier.
1992
George Ashbrook was born… he joined the team!
1995
Ashbrook Roofing invests in its first ever, second-hand, 7.5 tonne lorry, purchased from the local DFS. The head count of the roofing team, not including David, Peter, and Darin, was around 6 staff members. The company was working for private homeowners whilst also gaining contracts from North East Derbyshire Health Authority, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue, Buxton Lime Industries (BLI) and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), some of the first major roofing contracts to emerge.
1997
Ashbrook Roofing employs its first part-time administration employee Carol, who worked in the office alongside Clare Ashbrook. The Roofing Supplies part of the business had at this point started to expand, supplying more materials including slates, laths, tiles, tools, and lead to other local roofers.
1999
Ashbrook Roofing buys its first second hand forklift, much to the delight of the roofers, as they had been having to unload a regular 5pm artic delivery at the yard, by hand. (This forklift was to be kept all the way until 2018).
2000
Ashbrook Roofing, along with other businesses in Station Yard and the Matlock area suffered devastating floods, reaching up to 8ft in height within the office, losing all of the electrical equipment, business documentation, materials, and tools. It took a couple of months to get everything back to normal. The head count at this time was around 15 roofers, plus Clare and Carol in the office.
2002
Ashbrook Roofing was officially incorporated to form a limited company called Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies Limited – in recognition of the change in business venture, now supplying roofing materials and still continuing to be a roofing contractor, the company’s name was changed in October 2002.
2003
Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies purchases a second-hand pick-up and its first brand-new van to accommodate the amount of work that the roofing teams had secured.
2004
Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies, after consistently demonstrating quality roofing projects in and around Derbyshire, officially wins the contract for the Chatsworth House Trust and Dales Housing contracts.
2005
The company purchases its first ever 12.5 tonne crane lorry and full-time HGV driver, delivering roofing supplies to its customers around Derbyshire.
With the head count around 15 roofers onsite, a new fulltime office administrator (Sue) joined the team, with part-time administrator Carol still working alongside Clare Ashbrook in the office.
2006
Through a lot of hard work and dedication, Clare and David bought a disused brownfield site that was once a railway siding plot of land, at Harrison Way, half a mile down the road from their current depot; this was to build a larger roofing and supplies depot for their expanding business, especially as the roofing supplies side of the business continued to develop further. It became apparent that the site at Rowsley (Station Yard) was too small to meet the needs of the growing business. Work starts at the new plot of land.
After suggesting to Dreadnought Tiles over a long period of time, David Ashbrook finally convinces Dreadnought Tiles to add manganese into their clay plain tiles, which then resulted in the tile colour famously now known as Staffordshire Blue as we know it today, all thanks to David Ashbrook’s consistent feedback.
2007
The new plot of land bought at Harrison Way the previous year was mainly woodland, even having a small river running through the middle of it. After cutting down trees, digging up the ground and levelling the floor for the concreting slabs, we built the office, single warehouse, and sales yard.
2008
Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies finally moved into their new ‘’future-proof’’ depot at Harrison Way. At this point David, Clare and the team really thought this was big enough for their needs.
The office head count increased to 5, including 2 full-time sales staff at the trade counter and 2 full-time office staff working alongside Clare, the roofers head count was around 15 working on site.
2009
George Ashbrook joined the business in August and started working in the roofing team as a labourer/ trainee roofer; just like that, his career in the roofing industry begins.
2010
Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies replaces its original crane lorry for a bigger and slightly newer 18 tonne vehicle. The business had continued to grow steadily for the last few years, and to their credit the company increased turnover through each year of the 2008-2011 recession.
2011
The legend, known as Bez (Anthony) Walker joined the company as Head of Sales. Bez was also a close member of the Ashbrook family.
At this time, Bez came up with the idea and began to create the Ashbrook Roofing and Supplies website so customers can purchase materials from around the country.
The company invested heavily into a new and larger server to accommodate all of its data and hardware. Another full-time office employee also joined the team.
2012
In May, Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies launched its first ever sales website (www.ashbrookroofing.co.uk) enabling customers to order roofing products from all over the country. The success of the website came quickly, with first-year sales of over £150,000
The company also officially formed a web department to cope with metrics, listings, and digital content creation.
2013
After the success of the sales website, the company decided to start selling its products on other platforms like Amazon and eBay to develop its e-Commerce presence. The company carried out its first home building exhibition show in Harrogate, showcasing the range of roofing products and services it offers to its customers.
2014
The company continues its exhibition shows but this time in Birmingham at the NEC Home Building Show, after learning the ropes from Harrogate the first time.
2015
The Birmingham NEC Home Building Show continues for the second year. The office and warehouse staff head count come to a total of around 13 team members, the roofing team head count is constantly around 15 team members.
2016
With the company’s continued growth it had outgrown its premises at Harrison Way; now purchasing more land from Derbyshire Dales District Council, adjacent to the current depot, enabling the company to expand as it needed. A small section of the company’s land went towards the cycle route in exchange for a piece of land that extended over the stream, almost doubling the original yard space from when it was first purchased. There was an enormous amount of concrete being laid to replace the original floor that was a hardcore surface.
Clare, David, Bez, and his wife Sarah (another direct member of the Ashbrook family) attended the world trade fair in April at Guangzhou, China looking to source new products for its customers.
The Birmingham NEC Home Building Show continued for the third year running.
Within just a few years, George Ashbrook was nominated and came runner up in the category for the Young Lead Worker of the year award and received his trophy on stage at the National Roofing Awards in London.
The web team also refreshed its original website making it more user friendly and modern, at this point with strong continued growth, the website and other e-Commerce channels turnover was well over £1,000,000.
2017
With the need for indoor space, the company build another large warehouse on its current premises, again doubling the size of its original indoor warehouse space. This created warehouse 1 and warehouse 2. The company also invested in a brand-new forklift and another second hand 26 tonne crane lorry adding to its fleet
2018
Another year, another extension; the company built another building alongside part of the original building, again doubling the upstairs office space and opening a brand-new sales trade counter for the floor below.
In March, George Ashbrook and the Senior Management Team was given a Managers Development Programme business certificate award by the East Midland Chamber of Commerce, in recognition of their growing in management skills.
To help with natural resources the company invested in a 19Kw Solar Power system which was fitted to the large roof of its warehouses. Now more than 50% of its power consumption at the Darley Dale site is provided by renewable resources.
2019
With the recent build of the trade counter, the company also upgraded its trade counter till system. Focusing on sustainability and recycling, new facilities were introduced now recycling all of its paper, cardboard, plastic, and wood waste.
With the company’s growth over the last few years there was a clear recognition that a new operating system was required to accommodate a growing number of staff, to include new processes and reporting capabilities. Just like that the hunt was on; little did we know that just researching the new operating system would take over 12 months.
In December George Ashbrook became Managing Director of the Company as David and Clare Ashbrook started to step down and relax towards a well-deserved retirement.
2020
Covid hits in March, causing uncertain times initially but, after the government announced furlough, it became clear online orders were busier than ever as people were placing orders for home improvement products. At one point all online selling platforms had to be turned off for purchases because the order volume was too much and unsustainable.
Current staff head count was around 15 onsite roofers, 15 office and sales staff, and 8 staff in the operations team picking and packing.
The company purchased another second hand 26-tonne crane lorry to upgrade its fleet.
2021
Another 2 vans were purchased for the contracts team upgrading their fleet again.
Due to covid and material issues, the company invests in a large amount of racking for the outdoor yard and indoor warehouse stock.
The company also heavily invests in 4 brand new forklifts, clearing out the old fleet of forklifts.
To accommodate the new forklift health & safety policy, dedicated floor marking around the entire depot was laid including customer walkways and safety mirrors.
After over a year of heavy research for a new operating system, the right one is found! The start of the implementation stage begins, meaning an enormous investment in time and money; hundreds of thousands of pounds and hundreds of people hours.
2022
The beloved Ashbrook family member, and Head of Sales for the company, known as Bez (Anthony) Walker sadly dies in March, aged 51, after battling cancer.
Ashbrook Roofing Services is incorporated as a standalone company for its original roofing division that was born in the 1970’s.
Ashbrook Roofing & Supplies has a name change to just Ashbrook Roofing Supplies to reflect the company now just as a roofing merchant, instore and online.
At the same time Ashbrook Construction and Ashbrook Commercial Properties were created, along with Ashbrook Holding Group as the main structure holding the 4 subsidiaries together under one flag.
The company invested in a brand-new pickup and 2-seater van for the contracting team upgrading their fleet again.
The company moves back into its original depot half a mile down the road, where it first started 45 years ago in Rowsley at Ashbrook Close, Old Station Yard as its now called.
A brand-new office was built upstairs now housing the roofing division and the groups finance team. Officially now operating from 2 different depots, down the road from one another.
David Ashbrook, the founder of the Ashbrook Roofing family very sadly dies in December, aged 73, after battling a short spell with cancer.
2023
George Ashbrook is asked to join the Committee for the Midlands area of the NFRC (National Federation of Roofing Contractors) and joins the board.
Current head count is around 43 staff members over two different depots and multiple divisions.
George Ashbrook's Personal Why
My why is incredibly personal to me. My parents have worked their entire life, day in and day out for their business and sacrificed everything along the way. I now have the responsibility to carry it on in their name, to make it successful and sustainable.
This business carries our family name which makes it incredibly personal and beyond special. I will always give 100% dedication and service to make my family proud.
This is a picture of David Clare and George – Clare and George still operative the business today as a family run business.
Our Core Values
- POSITIVITY & OPEN-MINDEDNESS – Helps us to solve challenges and makes life more fun!
- INTEGRITY – We take ownership of what we do, behaving with respect & integrity to our customers and our colleagues.
- COMMITMENT – We have the company targets in mind when we carry out our tasks to the very best of our ability.
- DISCIPLINE – We follow Standard Operating Procedures; we do our job Right First Time and we always ensure the health and safety of ourselves and those around us.
- COMMUNICATIVE – We timely share facts and information that will help others, and we escalate when needed.
Mission Statement
Ashbrook Roofing remains a family run business whose mission is to Inspire, Support and Deliver our customers project needs.
Vision Statement
Our vision is to improve the quality of Roofing & Building within the communities we serve by:
- Operating welcoming and efficient multi-site locations
- Stocking an inspirational range of products focusing on quality, value and price.
- Offering expert advice, extraordinary level of service & after sales support.
- …bringing customers back time and time again
We believe in delivering extraordinary customer service
Our vision is to improve the quality of Roofing & Building within the communities we serve by:
- We value courtesy, efficiency, fairness and honesty.
- We put what our customers need and want at the heart of everything we do.
- We conduct transactions in a friendly and respectful manner.
- We keep customers informed.
- We do what we say we’re going to do.
- We deliver services to the standards set and within the agreed timeframes.
- We respond to customer feedback and suggestions.
- We aim to get things consistently right, but if we make a mistake, we will correct it and apologise.
